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November 01, 2023

Airborne 11.01.23: 'Top Combat Pilot', CAP Record, EHang EH216-S eVTOL

Also: Rich Stowell Blog, Leonardo AW169, Cessna Fuel Selector Valves, EAGLE Initiative

Fox Nation is making ready to debut a new series titled Top Combat Pilot. The show’s premise is Top Gun derivative and features U.S. Marine Corps UH-17 Venom, AH-1 SuperCobra, and F/A-18D Hornet pilots undergoing the service’s Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course in Yuma, Arizona. The Civil Air Patrol set a new record for cadet orientation flight hours in fiscal 2023, with CAP pilots totaling 14,451-hours aloft with their young passengers—an increase of 19.5-percent over the 12,096-hour figure set in fiscal 2022. The previous high for orientation flight hours, set in fiscal 2018, was 14,101. The record total helped CA

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Zenith’s Kit Aircraft Building Workshop and Fly-In Drawing Near

Events Slated for 01-02 December on SUN ‘n FUN Campus

Zenith Aircraft Company is returning to central Florida on 01 and 02 December 2023 for purpose of hosting its popular hands-on kit aircraft building workshop. Subject workshop will be held on the SUN ’n FUN Expo campus (site of the annual Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo), and followed immediately by an informal regional Zenith fly-in gathering. The workshop will get underway on the morning of Friday, 01 December, inside the Buehler Aerospace Restoration and Training Center—part of the Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE) at the SUN ’n FUN complex on central Florida’s Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL). The Buehler Hangar—in which members of the Lake

Four-Part Series Chronicles USMC WTI Course

Fox Nation, the American subscription video on-demand service, is making ready to debut a new series titled Top Combat Pilot. The show’s premise is Top Gun derivative and features U.S. Marine Corps UH-17 Venom, AH-1 SuperCobra, and F/A-18D Hornet pilots undergoing the service’s Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course in Yuma, Arizona. The four-part series, which is slated to premier on 06 November 2023, will be hosted by actor Dennis Quaid (The Right Stuff, Breaking Away, The Big Easy) purports to offer audiences a behind-the-scenes look at one of the U.S. military’s most intense and competitive pilot training programs.

Billy Wilson Succeeds Chris Norman

The FedEx Master Executive Council (MEC) of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) has elected Captain Billy Wilson as chair for an interim term ending in March 2025. Captain Wilson will fill the vacancy left by his predecessor, Captain Chris Norman. Wilson is a 27-year FedEx pilot currently based in Memphis.

No Pilot Contract as Airline Posts Record Q3 Earnings

Joined by pilots from competing airlines, over two-hundred Air Canada pilots undertook an informational picket outside Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) on 30 October 2023. The picket’s date and time corresponded with the release of Air Canada’s third-quarter 2023 earning call, wherein the Canadian flag-carrier reported record adjusted earnings of $1.83-billion EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization). The figure marked an increase of $733-million over 2022’s third-quarter, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 28.8-percent—the highest of any major North American airline for the time-period.

When Horses Fly …

LATAM Cargo, the freight-carrying division of Chilean air-carrier LATAM Airlines Group S.A, will presently transport a total of 196 horses slated to compete in equine events part and parcel of the upcoming 2023 Pan America Games. The steeds will travel aboard a Boeing 767 freighter by which they’ll be borne from their home pastures and paddocks in Chile to destinations in the United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, and Paraguay. After three-weeks of flying, galloping, cantering, jumping and side-passing across two continents, the horses will return to Chile, hopefully bearing victory’s garlands.

Aero-TV: Development of Air Command’s Integrity Gyroplane Continues

Wisconsin Company Targets Q2 2024 Customer Ship Date

Originally based in Wylie, Texas, Air Command International is an American manufacturer of FAR Part 103 gyroplane kit aircraft. The company’s inaugural offering, 1984’s single-seat, Air Command Commander, was a tremendous success, with over two-thousand kits being shipped during the machine’s 19-year production run. Subsequent models included the Air Command Commander Elite, which was alternately supplied as a kit for amateur construction and a conversion kit for its Commander forebear; and the two-seat Air Command Commander Side-By-Side, an unusual gyroplane featuring a two

Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works at It Again

True Blue Power—the Kansas and California-based aerospace technology concern specializing in the design and manufacture of aircraft electrical power systems, USB and wireless chargers, power conversion products, emergency power supplies, and advanced lithium-ion batteries—has announced its TB44 (46 amp-hour) Lithium-ion Aircraft Battery and TI2004 (2,000 VA) DC-to-AC Inverter will provide power to the Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works X-59 plane. Ascribed the clever appellation Quesst, subject aircraft comprises unique fuselage and airfoil architecture designed to mitigate the occurrence and volume of sonic-boom phenomena.

Also: Michael Whitaker Nom, ATI Pilots, “Galactic 05” Research Mission, flyExclusive Buys CJ3 Gen2

Japan Airlines recently found itself uncomfortably middled between national pride and the immutable principles of physics. JAL was recently forced to add an extra domestic flight for purpose of accommodating a sizable group of sumo wrestlers traveling to attend the Special National Sports Festival on Amami Oshima Island in Japan’s southern Kagoshima Prefecture. Zenith Aircraft Company is returning to central Florida on 01 and 02 December 2023 for purpose of hosting its popular hands-on kit aircraft building workshop. Subject

Coming Up Roses in the Peach State

Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation has completed a strategic expansion of the storied plane-maker’s Savannah precision manufacturing facility for the Gulfstream G400, Gulfstream G500, and Gulfstream G600. Subject expansion increases the facility’s capacity by 142,000 square feet (13,192 square meters).

Airplane Slid Off The Runway And Onto The Grass Where It Hit A Concrete Sign Base Before It Came To Rest

On September 21, 2023, about 1436 eastern daylight time, an Embraer SA EMB-525, N434FX, operated by Flexjet LLC, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near St. Simons Island, Georgia. The pilot, copilot and six passengers were not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91K fractional flight. The flight departed Westchester County Airport (HPN), White Plains, New York at 1239, destined for St. Simons Island Airport (SSI), St. Simons Island, Georgia. According to the pilot, the departure and en route phases of the flight were uneventful.

Aero Linx: The Taylorcraft Foundation The Taylorcraft Foundation is exclusively organized for charitable, educational & scientific activities and will preserve the history and technical information of the Taylorcraft airplanes. This Foundation is a chartered State of Ohio Corporation and has been granted IRS 501(c)(3) status as a non-profit, tax exempt, organization. The Taylorcraft Foundation maintains archives, provides information and research assistance when possible to aircraft owners, and works to preserve Taylorcraft history.

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (11.01.23): Circle-To-Land Maneuver

Circle-To-Land Maneuver A maneuver initiated by the pilot to align the aircraft with a runway for landing when a straight-in landing from an instrument approach is not possible or is not desirable. At tower controlled airports, this maneuver is made only after ATC authorization has been obtained and the pilot has established required visual reference to the airport.

"You spend any time around the students of WTI and you realize quickly, most never speak of competition, directly. Marines are a unit and they operate as one and each and every student pilot is gunning to be recognized by their WTI instructors as the very best on the flight line." Source: Actor Dennis Quaid, discussing the upcoming four-part series, “Top Combat Pilot”, which is slated to premier on 06 November 2023, will be hosted by actor Dennis Quaid (The Right Stuff, Breaking Away, The Big Easy) purports to offer audiences a behind-the-scenes look at one of the U.S. military’s most intense and competitive pilot training programs.